Immortals
by QueenOfDragons2
Summary: A year after his brother's death, Hiro meets a Kitsune-masked assassin from a group of mercenaries called the Immortals, and is forced to help him fight against his previous employers when they start causing havoc in San Fransokyo in their attempt to find the assassin.
1. Kitsune

**This is an idea I got after watching Big Hero 6 for the…third time, I think? So yeah. Enjoy. It's very different from my initial idea, but I like it.**

It was just another day. But not for Hiro Hamada, who was standing in front of his brother's grave.

"Hey Tadashi," he said, giving a weak smile. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Uh, college's been pretty good, nothing…remarkable. The others are pretty much the same, and so is Aunt Cass. Everyone's…doing fine." He sighed and looked around. "We're…still doing that superhero thing, if it's all right with you…"

Hiro dropped to his knees. It had been exactly one year since Tadashi's death, and, standing here, it felt just as painful now as it did back then. "I… We…we miss you…"

"Hiiiiiiiro?"

Hiro's torso stiffened. The voice, high-pitched, was unlike anything he had heard before. He turned in the direction of the voice and saw a girl around his age standing a few feet behind him. She had blonde hair tied up in twintails that ended about an inch below her shoulders. She wore a lavender t-shirt and neon pink shorts that went down to her mid-thigh. He found it odd that he hadn't noticed her before…

She cocked her head to the side and said, "Hiiiiiro?"

Strangely enough, her high-pitched voice didn't get on his nerves.

Hiro, unsure of what else to say, said, "Yes?"

The girl pointed to the ground next to him and said, "Sit by?"

It took Hiro a few moments to realize what she was trying to say. "Y-You wanna sit by me?"

The girl nodded.

"Um…" Right now, Hiro just wanted to be alone, but if her speech patterns were any indication… "O-Okay."

The girl knelt down right next to Hiro, who felt more than a little uncomfortable by it.

After a few moments of silence, the girl said, "Tada good."

"…What?"

"Tada good," she repeated, her voice cracking ever so slightly.

"…Tada?"

The girl pointed at Tadashi's grave. "Tada."

"Oh, you mean Tadashi?"

The girl nodded.

"Heh. Yeah, he was a pretty great guy…"

Suddenly, the girl put her arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer.

"Um… What are you doing?"

"Comfort," she replied.

"Um… I'm not used to being hugged by…strangers…"

"I'm Shizuka Sasaki."

"That…still doesn't really tell me anything about you," Hiro pointed out as he quietly reflected on the irony of her name (her voice might not have been grating but it was anything but "quiet").

Shizuka didn't move. In fact, she wrapped her other arm around him. "You need."

Hiro really wanted to be alone, but he just couldn't tell her to leave.

Turned out, he didn't need to.

"Shizuka!" yelled a voice not too far away.

A man wearing traditional Japanese clothing suddenly came running up to them.

"Shizuka, I keep telling you not to go off by yourself!"

"But Daddy…" she whined.

Her father gently grabbed her shoulder and tried to pull her away from Hiro, but she held steadfast to him. He ended up having to pry her arms off of him.

"Sorry about that," the man said to Hiro. "She has a tendency to…wander."

Hiro then noticed a group of people a fair distance away. Even from here, he could tell that they were all wearing traditional Japanese clothing.

As the man gently dragged her away by the wrists, the girl looked back at Hiro and yelled, "Immortals! Beware Immortals!"

Hiro just blinked as the girl was dragged out of earshot. What on earth did she mean by "Immortals"?

Regardless of what she meant, Hiro didn't feel like sticking around much longer, especially with that group of people nearby.

Hiro forced himself to his feet…and almost immediately ran into another, nearly identical girl. The only difference was that this girl looked like she was 10 and had a bow and a bunny charm in her hair. There was an aura about her that made Hiro feel strangely uneasy.

She held up a polished brown flower vase with a white chrysanthemum and a neon-pink lily in it. Inscribed in the vase was the Japanese character for "immortal."

"The Shiragiku represents truth or grief," she said with a noticeable Japanese accent. She held the vase toward him. "This is for you. Don't lose it."

Hiro somewhat reluctantly took the vase. "What's with the lily?"

The girl blinked. "…It's important."

"…How?"

"…Just don't lose it."

With that, she ran off towards the group of people in the distance, leaving Hiro alone to wonder just what the heck was going on.

_Later that night…_

The three friends sat in a circle a few feet away from the smoldering warehouse, clutching the bowls holding candles in their hands.

One was a college-aged boy wearing a green mask that covered the top half of his face. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that was the same color as his mask. On the shirt was a small, silver nametag that said "B-26".

Another was a woman about the same age as him. She was wearing a neon-pink mask that covered almost her entire face and a same-colored outfit that resembled a nurse's uniform. She had a nametag that said "A-93".

The third was a man wearing a Kitsune mask. He wore an outfit nearly identical to a ninja's, aside from the white bandages covering his arms and hands and a nametag that said "C-14". Straddled across his back was a katana scabbard, and an electronic sword handle hung from a belt around his waist. The mask was white with yellow eyes, holes on the nose, and a black line where the mouth was that extended the entire width of the mask.

The three were silent, the only movement coming from B-26 bouncing his crossed legs.

C-14 set his bowl on the ground. "Guys…I'm sorry." A voice scrambler made it impossible to tell what he really sounded like. "If it hadn't been for me, you-"

"Don't," interrupted A-93, speaking with a German accent. "Don't apologize. It's better that all three of us survive instead of just one."

"Marina's right," said B-26. "You'd just feel guilty about being the only one to survive."

C-14 looked down at his bowl. "I…can't deny that, but…"

"But nothing. If anything, I…I actually…I actually prefer being alive…with you two."

"That…" Marina said shakily, "goes for me too."

C-14 just sighed and shook his head. "Matriarch won't be happy to learn we ended up going against her orders."

"There was no way we could just… We couldn't… You didn't want go through with it. We weren't going to force you to go through with something you didn't want to do."

"…You wouldn't be forcing me. You went out of your way to get me out of there."

"I think what she meant," said B-26, "is that we couldn't just sit by and watch you beg to be let out."

C-14 was silent for a few moments before saying, "The sisters aren't going to take this well…"

Marina and B-26's breaths hitched in their throats. They had forgotten about the sisters, and they indeed weren't going to take the whole thing well…but they knew that C-14 was just trying to change the subject, so neither of them responded.

There was a long silence afterward.

"…So what now?" asked B-26. "We can't stay here. Matriarch might come by."

"And I still have to deal with my previous employers…"

"Whaddaya mean?"

"…There are certain lines that I will not tolerate being crossed. And they crossed several of those lines."

"Meaning you turned against them and now they're after you," stated Marina.

"It's…part of the reason I agreed to this in the first place."

"Well… We still need a place to spend the night, Kitsune," B-26 said to C-14.

"I know, Kevin."

0~*~0

Two hours later, they had settled on an abandoned warehouse in the out-of-the-way part of town. The door, interestingly enough, looked like it had been busted down at some point, but it was clear the building hadn't been used for a long time.

Earlier, Kevin and Marina had scavenged some discarded but very much usable mattresses and blankets and had laid them down on the warehouse floor.

While Kevin and Marina lied down on their mattresses and pulled their blankets over themselves, Kitsune just sat on his mattress, staring at the moon through a hole in the ceiling. He waited until he was sure they were sound asleep before standing up. He picked up a tattered black blanket and draped it over him like a cloak. He would look suspicious, sure, but going out in his normal attire would make him look even more suspicious.

He wandered out into the city of San Fransokyo, careful to stay away from the busy streets where it would be easier to see him. The reason for his wandering was simple: he needed to be alone with his thoughts (and, frankly, the city was _beautiful_ at night).

He eventually wandered into the cemetery; he knew there would be nobody there at this time of night (though he had still brought a few wildflowers he had found to enhance the disguise), and-

…No.

There WAS somebody here, out in the graveyard. He wasn't close enough to detect anything specific about the person, but there was definitely somebody out there. Kitsune slowly crept in the direction of the person, ready to bolt at any moment; his training as an assassin had taught him to avoid confrontation with civilians unless absolutely necessary.

The darkness of the night made it extremely hard to see, even for him; he didn't even notice the other person until his foot lightly kicked them and he crouched onto the ground.

It was a boy, a young boy, not a child but definitely younger than he was. He was asleep, curled up in front of a gravestone. He had shaggy black hair and he was wearing a zipped-up hoodie. Kitsune, out of curiosity, strained to see the gravestone. It was too dark to see the dates of birth and death, but he could make out the name quite well: Tadashi Hamada.

Just two seconds later, there was a crash of thunder. His gaze quickly turned toward the sky. There were thick clouds above them, and through the nostrils in his mask, he could detect the smell of rain.

A soft groan brought his attention back to the boy.

He might've been a hitman, but there was no way Kitsune was going to leave a sleeping young boy out in the rain.

He gently picked up the boy in his arms, careful not to jostle him too much. He froze when the boy shifted slightly, mumbling "Nii-chan…"

Nii-chan. That meant…"big brother," didn't it?

"I-It's okay," he whispered, speaking softly so as to limit the distortion caused by his voice scrambler, "I got you. Nii-chan's here, I'm here."

The boy cuddled closer to him and a small smile crossed his face, just barely exposing the gap in his upper teeth. It made him look…quite cute.

Kitsune carried him to the entrance of the cemetery, where there was a reasonably-sized building. He tried the door. Locked.

Shifting the likely middle-schooler so that he was holding him in his left arm (dear god, he was so SMALL), he took his skeleton key out of his pocket and put it into the lock. It turned, and the door opened.

A few feet away from the door was a comfy-looking couch up against the wall. Kitsune carefully laid the boy down on the couch, getting him into a comfortable-looking position. The boy shifted a bit as he settled into the couch. Kitsune glanced out the door's window. It was raining.

"Just in time," he softly muttered.

He looked at a clock hanging in the hallway. 3:12 a.m.

"What the heck were you doing here at this time of night?" he quietly asked the boy, knowing full well he wouldn't get an answer.

Kitsune sighed. "Well, looks like we'll be here for a while."

**Author's note: …I feel like there was something I wanted to mention, but I forget what. There is one thing I could say, but I won't say it until it's explicitly pointed out.**

**Oh yeah. Be sure to check out my other stories!**

**Update: To clarify a few things, Shizuka means "quiet" in Japanese. And the warehouse that the three spend the night at is indeed the same one where Yokai made the microbots. I'm telling you that now because I'm not sure if I'll be returning to that location, but we'll just have to see.**


	2. Escalating

On the morning of the anniversary of Tadashi's death, Honey Lemon had sent a text to Hiro telling him that they were available if he wanted to talk. Hiro had replied five minutes later, thanking her for the offer and promising to let her know. He hadn't sent her any other texts the rest of the day and, now that Honey was looking through her phone the next morning, she saw that he hadn't sent any during the night, either.

The next school year at college didn't start for several weeks, and Honey didn't really have any plans in particular for that day, so after getting dressing and fixing up her hair a bit, she decided to head to the Lucky Cat Café to see how Hiro was doing.

Aunt Cass had just opened the café when she got there.

"Good morning, Aunt Cass," she said.

"Oh, good morning, Honey Lemon," Aunt Cass replied.

"…Is Hiro in his room?"

"Yes." She didn't need to ask why.

Honey quietly went upstairs, passing the kitchen on the way up.

"Hiro?" she said gently when she reached the top of the stairs.

No response.

"Hiro?" she repeated a little louder.

Hiro wasn't in his bed or at his desk (though Megabot was there). He wasn't even in the room. A quick check of the bathroom revealed he wasn't there either.

It was then that she happened to bump her leg against Hiro's desk. Her resulting "Ow" must've been loud enough to activate Baymax because the next thing she heard was the sound of inflating.

Baymax waddled up to her and said, "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. Hello Honey Lemon."

"Oh, hey Baymax. Uh…do you know where Hiro is?"

"I do not," he said, tilting his head slightly. "Why?"

Oh dear.

"Uh, Baymax? W-Would you mind helping me find Hiro?"

"Of course."

Finding Hiro would be a lot easier with Baymax's sensors.

0~*~0

Hiro had no idea what was going on anymore. He was walking down a tunnel lit by red lights along the sides, and every once in a while, he would hear the sound of something lightly scraping against the floor right behind him, but he couldn't turn around or stop. Eventually, he went around a corner and went into what looked like the inside of a warehouse, though there were no visible windows and the only light was from red lamps scattered around the place. Hiro felt himself stop and turned in the direction he had come, but the only thing there was a wall; there was no sign of the tunnel he had just come through.

Hiro suddenly heard a scuffling noise behind him.

"Tadashi?" he said automatically.

Instead of Tadashi, though, Hiro was face-to-face with an enormous fox with nine tails. It glowed with a golden light…and it was splattered with blood.

"Tadashi is gone," it said. Its voice sounded like three different people speaking in unison.

The fox slowly moved towards him. Hiro felt paralyzed.

And then the fox rubbed the clean side of its face against Hiro's head and rested its head on his shoulder. Its fur was remarkably soft. "But I'm here."

0~*~0

Hiro's eyes opened. He was staring at a white wall. This wasn't his room.

Hiro then noticed Honey Lemon standing over him, with Baymax a few feet behind her.

Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, he said, "Honey Lemon? Did you, uh…"

He was lying on a couch he had never seen before in a hallway he had never seen before, and on top of him was a tattered black blanket.

"Did you…do this?"

"Uh, no," she replied. "I just got here."

The last thing he remembered before that weird dream was sneaking out during the night to visit Tadashi's grave one more time after hours of trying and failing to fall asleep (though why he had decided to do that of all things was beyond him). Had he fallen asleep? But then how did he get here?

"What are you doing here?" said a voice behind Baymax.

The three of them looked and saw a woman with a purse over her left shoulder and a coffee cup in her right hand, standing in the doorway.

"Uh… I was looking for him…" said Honey Lemon, feeling awkward.

"How did you get in here?" the woman said.

Honey Lemon somewhat sheepishly said, "The door was unlocked…"

"I…have no idea," said Hiro.

The woman stared for a few more seconds before walking past them. "Well unless you have business with us, I suggest you leave before my manager gets here."

Hiro glanced up at Honey Lemon and Baymax before getting off the couch and following her out, leaving the tattered blanket on the couch.

0~*~0

As Fred headed to the Lucky Cat Café, he decided to take a shortcut that he hadn't taken for at least five years. It went past a huge, partially underground, abandoned warehouse that Fred had loved to explore when he was a child. It had always seemed like the perfect supervillain lair. Fred couldn't help but smile a bit at the thought of all those times he would pretend to be a superhero stealthily sneaking through the villain's lair to find the secret plans to the doomsday weapon. Of course, it probably would've been more fun if there had been others to play the role of the villains…

A scream pulled him out of his thoughts. It sounded close. Fred immediately ran toward it, stopping in front of the warehouse…or rather, where it was supposed to be. In its place was a burned-out hole in the ground, with a few wisps of smoke still coming off of it. In front of where the entrance had been were two girls. One was kneeling on the ground, clutching something to her chest. The other one was staring at the ruins, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape.

Moments after his arrival, Hiro and Honey Lemon suddenly rounded the other corner. Hiro stopped short at the sight of the girls, looking surprised.

"Th-This…" murmured the younger-looking one, the one staring at the ruins, "this…wasn't…supposed to…happen…"

Seemingly in response, the kneeling girl began crying.

It was at the moment that Baymax, walking as fast as he could on his stubby legs, rounded the corner. After briefly taking in the scene, he waddled up to the crying girl and, scanning her, said, "What seems to be the trouble?"

The girl held out the object she was clutching to her chest. The other girl said, "We…found that…in there…" She motioned toward the burned-out ruins.

Baymax tried to take the object out of the girl's hands, but she refused to let go of it. Hiro approached and also grabbed the object. This time, the girl let go of it.

Hiro looked over it…and soon threw it away in surprise, yelling out as he did so.

"Is that…real?" he asked cautiously.

"It…should be…" mumbled the younger girl.

The object had landed close enough to Fred for him to tell what it was: it was _a burnt human femur._

"This…shouldn't have happened…" mumbled the younger girl. She turned to Hiro and, with an indescribable expression, said, "I'm so sorry, Hiro… I'm so sorry…"

Hiro gave her a somewhat confused look. "For what?"

The girl stared at him for a few moments before shaking her head and looking back at the ruins. "…It doesn't really matter… Not anymore…"

0~*~0

"Reports are coming in about an abandoned warehouse…" Hiro could hear bits of the news drifting from the TV in the cafe to the garage. "Authorities have recovered the remains of an estimated 300 people from the wreckage…" Hiro jerked upright in the couch. "The cause of the fire is still being investigated…"

"Three…hundred?"

How on Earth could there have been three hundred people in that warehouse when it burned down? Several possibilities began swirling in Hiro's mind, none of them pleasant.

Before he could really think about any of them, one of his computers started beeping. Hiro wheeled his chair over to the computer. Alistair Krei was trying to contact him.

Of course.

Rolling his eyes, Hiro accepted the contact.

A screen opened, showing Krei with a rather frightened look on his face. This…wasn't quite what Hiro was expecting.

"What's the matter?"

"My house was broken into," he said quietly, looking like a scared rabbit, "along with fifteen of my neighbors."

Hiro's eyebrow went up. "Was anything stolen?"

"N-no, not as far as they can tell, but…" He glanced around nervously. "But even if anything was stolen, that's…that wouldn't be the…main problem."

"What do you mean?"

"A-Apparently, they didn't want any witnesses-"

Hiro wasn't in any mood to let Krei dance around the issue. "Get to the point."

Krei gulped and said, "…Nine people were murdered."

"…What."

"Nine people were murdered in their homes. Three of which…were children."

Hiro almost fell out of his seat. "What!?"

"It appears they didn't want to leave any witnesses…"

Hiro sat in stunned silence for a few moments. "…Any idea who these people are?"

"Well, no… B-But the police suspect a serial killer might be involved."

Both of Hiro's eyebrows went up. "Why?"

"Because of the way…one of the victims was found."

Hiro tilted his head to the side. "Explain."

"Well… I don't know the details. It was just something I overheard. The officer seemed quite disturbed, though…"

Hiro waited for him to say something else, but Krei remained silent. "…Let me know if you find out anything else."

"…All right."

Hiro then closed the contact and leaned back in his chair.

A serial killer.

Hiro had faced all kinds of criminals in his superhero duties, but not an active serial killer, so this was pretty interesting to him. Especially since he knew pretty much nothing about real serial killers. Still, he decided that it would be better to confirm it with the police before telling the others, especially considering that all he had was Krei's word for it (he genuinely tried to be helpful, but his tips weren't always accurate).

Just then, Hiro's phone started beeping and he picked it up. It was a text from Honey Lemon that said, "Guys, check the news. Now."

Hiro raised his eyebrow again. He went into the main part of the café and sure enough…

"…That nine people were murdered in their own homes last night. According to police reports, the victims' houses were broken into and ransacked, as were several other houses in the area, though there have been no reports of anything being stolen. Police are conducting a thorough investigation…"

The report went on, but there was no mention of the way any of the victims had been found, let alone a serial killer being involved. Then again, Hiro figured, even if a serial killer was indeed involved, the police would probably wait to reveal that information until they were caught or a few more murders happened. But regardless of whether or not there was a serial killer, one thing was certain: he and the rest of the team would make sure that whoever was responsible for the murders spent the rest of their life behind bars.

He then pulled out his phone and texted the others.

0~*~0

Kevin woke to the sound of dripping water.

"Huh…?" he muttered groggily, forcing himself upright.

Water was dripping from the ceiling onto the floor, away from where they had put their mattresses. He glanced over and saw that Marina was still on her mattress, sound asleep. Kevin lied back down…and caught a glimpse of Kitsune's mattress. He wasn't there.

Kevin sprung upright, wide awake. Where was he? He hadn't gone outside, had he?

Kevin desperately looked around, hoping that Kitsune had just woken up early and…

…And he spotted something white in the catwalks.

Kevin got up and dashed up the steps. Sure enough, it was Kitsune, sitting down and tightly gripping the handrails.

Kevin slowly walked toward him, stopping just a few feet away. "Kitsune?"

No response. And then Kevin realized that Kitsune was trembling.

"Kitsune?" he asked, kneeling down. "What's wrong?"

Kevin heard him take a shaky breath. "…They…killed…nine…people…"

Kevin leaned in a little closer. "Huh?"

"They killed nine people."

"'They?' You mean…your previous employers?"

"Yeah. They broke into people's homes…and killed anyone who happened to be there."

"What…?"

"They're trying to draw me out."

It took Kevin a few moments to fully process that statement. "Draw you out?"

"They know I won't stand for this. And they want to get back at me as soon as possible. They'll do whatever it takes…"

Kitsune's breath hitched.

"Three of them…were children…"

Kevin's eyes slightly widened. "Oh no…"

Kitsune gripped the handrail even tighter. "GODDAMMIT, WHY!? WHY DID THIS HAPPEN!? WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DIE!?"

It took every ounce of willpower Kevin had to not jump back at Kitsune's sudden yelling.

"They didn't deserve this… None of them deserve this… It's all my fault…"

Kevin wrapped his arms around Kitsune, resting his head on the man's shoulder. "It's not your fault, Kitsune. It's their fault for choosing to kill those people in the first place."

Kitsune let go of the handrail and let his arms drop down.

"…I have to stop them."

"Kitsune—."

"I have a plan."

"Kitsune, there's no way you can do this alone."

"…If you think I'm going to let you and Marina—"

"I meant Big Hero 6."

Kitsune briefly chuckled. "Them? They're certainly skilled, but my previous employers… Many of them are escaped convicts. If they got arrested, they'd just escape."

"I meant work with them to deal with…your previous employers."

"They're superheroes. I'm a hitman. At best, they'd refuse to let me work with them. At worst, they'd turn me in to the police."

Kevin couldn't think of an effective counterargument.

"Besides, it's not like I'll be taking on every single one of them at once. And I'll only kill the ones who refuse to stop attacking me."

Kevin, knowing that was the best he would be able to get out of Kitsune at the moment, said, "…All right. But as soon as you start to get in over your head…get help. Whether it's Big Hero 6, the police, or someone else, just get someone who can help you."

"…Okay."

Kitsune shifted himself so that he was facing Kevin and wrapped his arms around the man. Kevin could feel Kitsune trembling slightly.

"It's okay, Kitsune," assured Kevin, stroking the back of Kitsune's head, wishing he could run his fingers through the other man's hair. "We won't leave you."

**Author's note: I hope this chapter made sense. I tended to work on this late at night.**


	3. Encountering

**I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but I'm not completely familiar with the layout of the Hamada household so forgive me if I make a mistake.**

**By the way, what is the proper way to type out Go Go's name?**

As it turned out, Hiro would find out who was responsible for the break-ins and murders only thirty minutes later when the alarm on one of his computers in the garage went off.

He sent another text message to the others, this one saying, "Suit up guys. The police need our help with a bank robbery. The one closest to Krei Tech HQ."

0~*~0

Less than ten minutes later, Baymax, in his red armor, was flying to the bank, with Hiro on his back. Fred was able to get around on his own easily enough thanks to his suit's superjump. Go Go was traveling through the streets at insane speeds using the wheels on her suit's feet. Wasabi was driving a green electromagnetic motorcycle that Hiro and Go Go had made a while back, with Honey Lemon as a passenger.

When they got there, the police had formed a sort of barrier around the bank's entrance. There were also a number of bystanders standing a considerable distance away. Hiro went up to an officer he recognized as Sergeant Gerson and said, "What's going on?"

Sergeant Gerson, whom had just finished talking to someone on his radio, turned around and said, "Thanks for coming. A group of robbers barricaded themselves inside the bank and have taken everyone inside hostage."

Baymax scanned the bank and said, "I am detecting twenty five individuals from within the building. Ten are wandering around while fifteen appear to be either sitting or lying down."

Another officer remarked, "I still don't get how you can do that."

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Hiro continued.

Sergeant Gerson said, "Well, one of them said that if a person in black wearing a fox mask came by, we should let him in."

Hiro raised an eyebrow. He had never heard of anyone with a fox mask.

0~*~0

The bank's concrete walls were no match for Wasabi's plasma blades. After making a comparatively good circle (he had gotten better at those over the past year), the team was in.

In the bank's lobby, sure enough, ten people wearing nearly identical yellow and black uniforms were wandering around, while fifteen people wearing normal clothes were huddled close together, either sitting or lying down, all looking terrified.

"What are you doing here?" inquired a uniformed woman casually twirling a gun, sounding as though the team had walked in on a formal party.

Hiro, surprised by the woman's tone, didn't respond.

"WE are waiting for a traitor to show up," she continued, "and we can't have anyone getting in the way."

The people wandering around had now turned to look at the superheroes, looking more miffed than hostile.

"Um," said a uniformed man near the woman, "I don't think you could really call them a 'traitor'..."

"Wait," interjected an on-edge Go Go, "you broke into a bank and took hostages…just to get this one person to come out?"

"Of course!" answered the woman. "After all, breaking into people's houses and killing anyone inside didn't work!"

"ELENA!" yelled the man.

"What is it, Howard?!" yelled Elena.

"You don't tell people that kind of stuff! Especially to superheroes!"

"You what?!" yelled Go Go, prepping her disks.

Elena stopped twirling her gun and narrowed her eyes at the heroes. As though it were a silent signal, all the uniformed robbers froze (with the exception of Howard).

"What we did does not matter," Elena stated, her voice dangerously calm. "What _does_ matter is that we are waiting for someone and we can't risk anyone getting in the way. And if you're not going to move out of the way…" She cocked the gun. "…We'll have to get rid of you."

She suddenly aimed the gun at the heroes and fired (the bullet missed and embedded itself in the wall). Less than a second later, most of the robbers were charging at the heroes, taking knives and clubs out of their uniforms. Three of them stayed back, surrounding the hostages.

Go Go was the first to react, flinging both of her hand disks and skating through the robbers at top speed. The first one hit the robber closest to them, knocking him over and causing him to drop his weapons. The second one was dodged by its intended target and instead hit Howard right in the forehead, also knocking him over.

The next one to react was Fred, who jumped up (the lobby was large enough for him to do that) and yelled "Gravity Crush!" as he attempted to land on Elena.

She easily got out of the way and Fred landed flat on his face.

"You know," she said, "I never understood the idea of calling your attacks. I mean, doesn't that make it easier for your enemy to dodge it?"

Fred, the wind knocked out of him, didn't respond.

By then, Honey Lemon had used her chemical balls to entrap two of the robbers and had just entrapped a third with knives. She ran off to join the battle…and the moment her back was turned to the robber with knives, he threw one of them at her. The blade nicked her arm, and she turned around in time to dodge the second knife. Fortunately, he was out of knives.

Wasabi performed a judo-throw on one of the robbers, with her landing on the robbers guarding the hostages.

At that point, Hiro and Baymax dashed for the hostages. Before they could reach them, however, Howard suddenly jumped in front of Hiro and grabbed his arm with both hands. Hiro almost reflexively punched him in the face with his free hand. He had developed a bit more muscle over the past year, and his gauntlets were quite hard, so when he punched him…

"Aaaaaauggh!" screeched Howard as he gripped his bleeding nose. "I think you broke my nose!" He dropped to his knees, still crying out in pain.

It took every ounce of willpower Baymax had to try not to help the man while Hiro just ignored him and went to the hostages.

"Is everyone okay!?"

Most of them were too terrified to speak, so instead they nodded.

At that point, the three robbers guarding the hostages and the one thrown onto them had gotten back up. They realized what Hiro was doing and they all attempted to charge him. Baymax, using the karate moves Hiro programmed into him, quickly subdued them without actually harming them. Hiro then ushered the hostages towards the front door, checking to make sure none of the other robbers tried to interfere.

Oddly enough, Elena was the only one who even looked at him for more than a few seconds. Because of that and the fact that none of the hostages were injured, Hiro was able to get them out quickly and with relative ease (though he nearly got hit by one of Go Go's hand disks at one point).

After getting the last hostage out, Hiro turned to join the others…and almost immediately noticed Baymax staring at one of the pillars on the other side of the room. The robot then began moving in its direction with a strange determination.

He hadn't even gotten a quarter of the way across the room when one of the robbers snuck up behind him, went around him, and jammed an electric gun into Baymax's torso mere inches away from his access port, sending huge amounts of electricity through the robot.

Baymax let out a horrifyingly distorted and high-pitched scream as he briefly convulsed before collapsing forward.

Go Go charged at the robber, who promptly ran like a scared rabbit. Neither of them noticed that he had dropped the electric gun.

"BAYMAX!" Hiro screamed as he ran over to the fallen robot. He dropped to his knees and lifted Baymax's head to look at him. "Baymax! Say something!"

Baymax made a weird droning sound. "Tttttaaaaaa… Taaaaaaaaaaadddddddddaaaaaaaaa…"

"H-Hang on Baymax…!" Hiro pleaded, near panic.

Suddenly, an inhuman screech pierced the air. Before Hiro could react, the screeching stopped, a woman briefly cried out behind him, and a hand firmly gripped his shoulder.

When he did turn around, he saw Elena lying on the floor directly behind him, the electric gun inches from her hand. But what really caught his attention was the person gripping his shoulder; it was a man (judging by the shape of his chest) wearing a black, ninja-like outfit that covered his whole body. The only parts of him that weren't black were his arms, wrapped in white bandages, and the white fox mask with yellow eyes that completely covered his face. An electronic sword handle hung from a belt around the man's waist. The man was gripping Hiro's shoulder with his right hand and in his left hand was a katana…and blood was running down the blade.

Hiro glanced down at Elena, who was coughing and making gurgling noises. He couldn't see her neck from where he was, but he could see the puddle of blood slowly expanding out from it. He quickly began to feel sick to his stomach.

Everyone else in the lobby was frozen, staring at the man in the mask. He turned slightly to look at them…and abruptly took off, dashing towards the robbers and letting go of Hiro's shoulder.

What came next was a dizzying display of martial arts, flipping, and sword-bashing (though not cutting) that, less than 30 seconds later, left all of the other robbers unconscious.

The man in the mask dashed off through a side door before any of the heroes could react, pausing only to look back at Hiro one last time.

The heroes stood around for a few more moments, too stunned to react.

Wasabi was the first to break the silence.

"Wh-Wh-Wh… What the heck was that!?"

"That…" said a clearly pained voice. "That was…who we were waiting for…"

Everyone except Baymax turned to look at the voice. It was Howard, still lying on the floor and clutching his bleeding nose.

"Who…you were waiting for?" repeated Wasabi.

"Who exactly was that guy?" asked Go Go.

"He's… an assassin-for-hire… Our boss…hired him from a mercenary group… I don't remember the name… Or why our boss hired him…" moaned Howard.

"An assassin!?" exclaimed Wasabi.

"He turned against us…when he found out who our boss is… And now our boss wants to find him and kill him…and he'll do whatever it takes to draw him out…"

"Who's your boss?" asked Go Go.

"His name is Brutus… That's all I can tell you."

"All you _can_ tell us or all you _will _tell us?"

Howard didn't answer, instead clutching his nose. "Ow…"

Hiro briefly glanced at Elena. If that man had been an assassin, it would make sense why he wouldn't hesitate to…get rid of her. But then…why…?

"He…killed Elena…didn't he?" asked Howard.

Elena had stopped making gurgling noises, or even moving.

Hiro gulped and said, "I…I think so…"

Go Go immediately skated around Baymax, coming to an abrupt halt when she saw Elena's body. Her expression contorted into one of disgust. "Ugh."

"Wh-What happened?" Wasabi cautiously asked.

"He sliced her neck in half."

Hiro cringed and became even gladder that he couldn't see Elena's neck.

"Well…" said Fred, sounding surprisingly unenthusiastic, "looks like we have to deal with an assassin too, now."

"A _professional_ assassin," corrected Howard.

Hiro could understand Fred's lack of enthusiasm. They had once fought a self-proclaimed assassin a few months ago, and that experience hadn't been pleasant for anybody (Wasabi had been severely injured, and Honey Lemon had come alarmingly close to dying). There was no way fighting a professional assassin (one that used a katana, no less) was going to be any easier.

Hiro sighed. He wasn't looking forward to this…

**Author's note: This is a little shorter than my chapters normally are, but I felt that this was a good place to stop.**

**Also, just to let you all know, my update schedule is to post the chapters less than a month apart. Which, considering that I'm working on another story in addition to this one, means that I'm working at twice the rate that I normally would.**

**Also, I didn't plan on Big Hero 6 encountering Kitsune until a bit later, but, well, plans change.**

**Oh, and for those of you who don't know, Sergeant Gerson is the police officer Hiro reports "Mr. Kabuki" to.**

**One last thing: if, at any time, you guys feel I should give warnings or raise the rating, let me know.**

**I think that's all I wanted to say…**


	4. Interfering

It took a considerable amount of time and effort, but they were eventually able to get Baymax to Fred's mansion (Hiro's garage was out of the question; with the method they were using, getting back there without being conspicuous was impossible), which had become a sort of base for the team.

The friends carried the now-deactivated Baymax up to Hiro's "room" and left the two there, staying in the hall in case they were needed.

Once alone, Hiro carefully opened up Baymax's vinyl skin and examined the internal workings near where the electric gun had been applied to Baymax.

The damage wasn't nearly as bad as Hiro feared it would be; a number of wires had been severely damaged, but Baymax's chips looked completely intact.

Still, he connected the chips to the computer to make sure the data hadn't been corrupted. The red fighting chip was fine, as was the green healthcare chip (Hiro felt an immense sense of relief at that; without that chip, Baymax was just a mindless automaton).

Still, he couldn't help but be curious about what had caused Baymax to get distracted, so, with the healthcare chip still connected, he began looking through Baymax's memory of the bank robbery.

Looking at the footage, from what he could tell, Baymax had gotten distracted when his scans picked up someone behind a pillar. It also showed the man wearing the fox mask dash out from behind the pillar when Elena was preparing to jam the electric gun into Hiro. He couldn't help but cringe when the man sliced Elena's throat in one swift motion.

Unfortunately, the footage didn't show the result of Baymax's scans of the man, but that wasn't important. What was important was that the robbers were after him and he wouldn't hesitate to kill them (though considering he was an assassin, that much should've been obvious).

Hiro sighed. The presence of the assassin brought up a lot of questions, and right now, he didn't have answers for any of them.

0~*~0

Marina lay semi-awake on the mattress for a while before sitting up and smoothing down her black hair.

She happened to glance up and noticed Kevin sitting in the catwalks.

"_Guten morgen,_ Kevin," she said groggily.

"Uh… You too, Marina," he replied. Marina's tendency to speak in German when she was tired or agitated had essentially forced Kevin to learn a few German phrases.

She looked around a bit more. "_Wo ist _Kitsune?"

"Um… He left to deal with his former employer's followers."

"_Warum?_"

"…Earlier this morning…they killed nine people in their own homes."

Marina froze.

"…What?"

"Yeah… Kitsune felt like it was his fault."

"…If everything he's told us about them is true, then there's no way he'll be able to deal with them himself."

"That's…more or less what I told him."

"What else did you tell him?"

"That he should get help as soon as he starts to get in over his head."

"Whom would he get help from?"

Kevin shrugged. "…Big Hero 6, maybe."

"How would he ask them for help? Or even reveal his existence to them?"

"They know I exist," replied a distorted voice from the warehouse entrance.

Both Kevin and Marina looked in its direction and saw the masked assassin standing there.

"Kitsune!" Marina shouted, getting off of her mattress and rushing up to him. "Are you hurt!?"

"I'm fine…"

"What happened?" inquired Kevin, still sitting in the catwalks.

"My previous employers… Some of them broke into a bank and took everyone inside hostage. I managed to sneak in, but Big Hero 6 came not long after."

"Did they see you?"

"No one saw me at first… But when one of my previous employers tried to kill someone, I had no choice but to kill her. After that, I had to knock all of them unconscious and leave as quickly as possible."

"Big Hero 6, your previous employers, or everyone in the room?" asked Kevin.

"…My previous employers. And they and Big Hero 6 were the only ones in the room at that point."

"That's…quite a first impression," replied Marina, unable to think of anything else to say.

"And not a particularly good one, either…"

Marina wrapped her arms around Kitsune's neck. "We'll get through this together, and we'll all be okay."

Kitsune somewhat eagerly returned the hug. "Yeah… We will…"

"We won't leave you, Kitsune."

Kitsune didn't reply, but he was incredibly grateful for her words of assurance.

0~*~0

"Oh, Hiro, a girl came by and asked me to give this to you when you got back," said Aunt Cass, handing Hiro an envelope.

Hiro cautiously took the letter and looked it over; the only thing written on it was "To Hiro Hamada".

He opened the envelope (it hadn't even been sealed) and unfolded the letter inside. He raised an eyebrow when he saw that it was written entirely in Japanese script.

Good thing he could read Japanese.

_Hamada Hiro-kun,_

_I am the little girl who gave you the flowers in the graveyard yesterday (I hope you're taking care of those). I realized shortly after meeting you again this morning that I haven't told you my name. My name is Sasaki Natsuki. My father is the leader of a Japanese heritage group, and works from home. Big sis and I are homeschooled, so I'd have ample time to spend with you, but I'd have to ask permission from my father before I could give you my address, and he'd get suspicious if I left home by myself; leaving to drop this letter off at your house (I figured it out through what I have seen) is risky enough. And big sis can't come with me as the discovery of what happened to the warehouse has traumatized her to the point where she is almost completely unwilling to move. I would love to explain everything to you, but as I said this morning, it doesn't really matter anymore. It would just bring us unneeded pain._

_From, Natsuki_

Hiro just stared at the letter, absolutely baffled as to the contents. The Japanese heritage group thing made some sense, but what on Earth was with that warehouse and…Shizuka? And why would the explanation bring him "unneeded pain"?

Hiro absentmindedly went back up to his room and put the letter on his desk, glancing at the potted chrysanthemum and lily on his desk near the windowsill. He was still confused as to the meaning of the lily, or how it even got that color in the first place.

Before he could think about it more, his cell phone started ringing. Hiro took it out of his pocket and flicked it on. It was Go Go.

Hiro accepted the call, held it up to his ear, and said, "Hello?"

"Hiro," Go Go's voice said in an extremely serious tone, "you know those people that broke into the bank this morning?"

"What about them?"

"Eight of them just escaped from police custody."

"…What!?"

"The only one who didn't was the guy whose nose you broke."

Hiro was stunned, both by the fact that those people had escaped so quickly and the fact that he had actually broken that guy's nose.

"…I'm on my way," he replied, hanging up and rushing to the garage where Baymax currently was, forgetting about the letter and its confusing contents.

0~*~0

Ten minutes later, Hiro was once again riding Baymax's back as the latter sailed through the sky, closing in on the escapees. Baymax had scanned all of them at the bank, and his enhanced scanner meant that he could use that data to track them down.

About 40 or 50 feet below them were Go Go, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred, navigating the streets. They occasionally glanced at Baymax to make sure they were following him; after all, he was the only one whom actually knew where they were going.

Several feet behind _them_ were a number of police cars, their sirens blaring. It struck Hiro that, to anyone who knew nothing about the team, it would appear that the police were chasing them, not following them.

Hiro couldn't help but smirk at the thought, a smirk that quickly went away when Baymax said, "My enhanced scanner is no longer detecting them."

"What!?"

"You gotta be kidding me!" Wasabi yelled in exasperation over the com link.

"However," Baymax continued, "I was able to ascertain their location."

"Oh, phew," someone said.

Hiro remained quiet. The only reason Baymax's scanner wouldn't put up on someone was if they were hiding behind a material that the scanner couldn't penetrate or if they…

And if the latter were the case…

Well, he would have to wait and see before deciding on that.

He ended up not having to wait long, as only seconds later, Baymax turned and landed in an alleyway. And right away, Hiro could see why Baymax's scanner had stopped detecting them.

Once the others caught up, their initial reaction was to stop and stare in horrified silence.

Except for Fred. "OH MY GOD!"

Right there, in the middle of the alleyway, were the bodies of the escapees, all fallen on the ground in a cluster and covered in blood.

When the police caught up and got out of their patrol cars, their reactions were more or less the same as the heroes', though none of them were as loud as Fred.

One officer went up to the bodies and started counting them.

Sergeant Gerson said, "Who the hell…?"

Hiro, whom by now had gotten off of Baymax, said, "It had to be the man in the fox mask."

"You…mentioned a guy like that this morning, right?" the sergeant asked, not looking away from the bodies. "The guy who killed, uh…"

"Elena. Yeah," replied Hiro, also not looking away from the bodies.

"Did you…f-find out anything else about that guy?"

"I don't even know where I could find out more about him."

The officer that had been counting the bodies looked at the two of them and said, "There are eight of them, sir."

"Eight of them…" Sergeant Gerson absentmindedly repeated as he took his radio out of his belt. "All units, copy…"

Hiro turned to Baymax and said, "Is he nearby, buddy?"

Baymax promptly scanned the area. There was an unusually long pause before Baymax said, "My scanner does not detect him."

Hiro's eyebrows furrowed. Baymax didn't normally say that if his scanner wasn't picking up on someone.

"…You sure about that?"

"I am certain of it."

"…You better not be lying to me."

"I am not programmed to be capable of lying."

He was right: as a medical robot, he had been programmed to always be honest with his patients. And since he considered pretty much everyone a patient, he was unable to lie to anyone.

Although…

Nevermind. It didn't matter.

"Well if you do pick up on him," Hiro said as he got back on Baymax's back, "let me know."

"Of course," replied Baymax.

"Do you need anything else from us?" Hiro asked Sergeant Gerson.

He thought about it for a moment before saying, "I don't think so, for now at least."

"All right, let's go home, buddy."

With that, Baymax took off and the rest of the team dispersed.

0~*~0

It wasn't until the heroes were out on their evening patrol when…

"My scanner is detecting the assassin," Baymax announced.

"Take us to him, buddy," Hiro commanded.

Baymax steered to the left, the heroes that could follow him doing so, and approached a train travelling in the same direction as them. Hiro could easily see the man riding on top of one of the cars. It was, without a doubt, the assassin, though the bandages on his arms now had a noticeable amount of red on them.

"All right," Hiro whispered, "let's try to sneak up on him."

Of course, it was at that exact moment that the assassin turned around and saw them.

"…Or maybe not."

The assassin slowly stood up, still staring straight at Hiro and Baymax as they got closer. Hiro could now see the numerous flecks of red on the man's mask. There was no doubt in Hiro's mind that it was blood.

"All right," Hiro whispered so only Baymax could hear, "this'll be risky, but let's see if we can catch him."

Baymax moved so that he was now above and behind the assassin. The man had crouched down a little bit, but otherwise hadn't moved.

"All right, move in!" Hiro fiercely whispered.

Baymax hesitated.

"…What's wrong?"

"Hiro, my scanner is detecting something about this man that you should know about."

As Baymax said that, he went over a sign that briefly blocked Hiro's view of the assassin.

"What?" Right after saying that, Hiro realized that the assassin had disappeared. "Wait, where did-?"

Before he could finish, something else suddenly landed on Baymax's back and wrapped its arm around Hiro's abdomen.

He immediately realized what it was.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" he screamed as the assassin wiped his free hand on Baymax's visor, partially obstructing the robot's view.

"Hiro," begged Honey Lemon, whom hadn't been able to follow them, "what happened!?"

"HE'S GOT ME! HE GOT ME!" Hiro shrieked.

It didn't help that Baymax was now swerving left and right as a result of the blood obstructing his vision and the added weight throwing off his balance.

The assassin, having a tight grip on Hiro, shifted his weight so that Baymax went up, away from the buildings and the teammates desperately trying to keep up with them.

By now, Hiro had calmed down enough to actually be able to think.

"Why did you kill them!?"

Not very clearly, though.

"Because they escaped from police custody!" the assassin screamed in reply, his voice heavily distorted. "I wouldn't have killed them if they hadn't done that!"

"What kind of reason is that!?"

"What difference does it make whether or not you know my reasons!? You'd still treat me the same way!"

Hiro couldn't think of anything to say in reply. He then realized they were about to pass over a building's roof.

The assassin's grip on him tightened. "Hang on!"

Just as they were about to pass over the roof, the assassin tore away from Baymax, taking Hiro with him. The moment they had let go, Baymax shut off his thrusters and crash-landed into the roof.

The assassin wrapped himself around Hiro, protecting the boy as they tumbled onto the roof. When they stopped moving, Hiro had only a few dazed moments to think before being dropped to the side. It took him a few more moments to recover enough to sit up.

And when he did, the assassin was standing in front of him, bent over so that his face was right in front of Hiro's.

"Please don't follow me again," he calmly asked. "It'll only create problems for both of us."

Before Hiro could react, the assassin turned around and jumped off the other side of the roof and out of sight.

"Hiro!" blared Honey's voice through the com link in his helmet, "Hiro, are you all right!?"

"I'm fine," he stated.

Baymax then slowly got up and walked toward Hiro, which he noticed out of the corner of his eye.

"And so is Baymax," he continued.

"Where are you?" asked Go Go.

"On a roof," Hiro unhelpfully replied.

"Which roof?"

"I don't know."

"…Well just stay there for now, okay?"

"Okay." Hiro sighed and said, "I think that's enough action for one day…"

**Author's note: I should not work on these late at night…**


	5. Near-Death Experience

**I've barely started with this story…and already I have an idea for a sequel. Is that normal? (Though whether I act on that is another question.)**

Three days passed. There were more break-ins and more murders. With one exception, the culprits always were wearing the same uniforms the bank robbers had worn. Big Hero 6 would even sometimes manage to get one of the teams arrested. Almost all of them escaped a few hours later (the ones that didn't said that they personally "preferred to live"). The ones that escaped would always turn up dead less than an hour later with multiple stab and slash wounds apparently caused by a katana (though some of the wounds would have burn marks around them). Hiro didn't see the assassin again, and he didn't try looking for him either.

At the end of those three days, he was picking at his dinner instead of eating it.

Aunt Cass, who knew about Hiro's superhero escapades, said, "It's not your fault, sweetie."

"I know," Hiro replied flatly, "but…it's still frustrating…"

Aunt Cass paused in eating her dinner to listen to Hiro.

"I mean…we've never dealt with something like this before but… I mean, we have no leads on them or their leader or even that assassin guy. All we really know is that their leader is some guy who calls himself 'Brutus'."

"Well, there's that at least…" offered Aunt Cass.

"Yeah, but it's not like I can just Google his name… These people aren't even _trying_ to hide but it's impossible to find them. And…" He sighed. "…It's just frustrating."

Aunt Cass couldn't think of anything to say that she thought might help.

Hiro finally just put down his fork and left his uneaten dinner on the table. "I'm not hungry."

Aunt Cass watched him sadly as he went upstairs to his room.

0~*~0

Once he was in his room, he went over to his desk and sat down. His mind wandered back to the strange dream he had had the night he encountered the assassin. It was of that strange fox trying to protect him from a huge troll armed with knives. This time, the fox had spoken in a single, heavily distorted voice…that sounded exactly like the assassin's voice. It had been quite startling and a tad bit frightening, but not nearly as much as the troll's voice. It had been calm as it taunted them, gleeful as it made death threats, and it sounded completely human. Hiro couldn't even remember what it said, just what its voice sounded like.

But he could perfectly remember how the dream ended.

The troll had summoned a bunch of smaller trolls that quickly distracted the fox and separated it from Hiro. The troll had then charged at Hiro and plunged its knives into Hiro's abdomen and chest right as the fox unleashed a loud scream.

The next thing Hiro had known, he was lying on his back with that huge fox licking his wounds, tears in its eyes.

That was when Hiro had woken up. It had haunted him ever since then. It was obvious that the fox was supposed to represent the assassin, judging by its voice…but what about the trolls? Especially the one with knives.

Hiro absentmindedly began to sketch them out. Not half an hour later…

"I'm going to bed, kiddo," Aunt Cass called from the bottom of the stairwell.

"Now?" Hiro questioned. "It's not even…" He checked the clock. "…7 o'clock."

"I know," she answered, "but I feel like I'm going to fall asleep any minute."

Alarm bells started going off in Hiro's head. But there was nothing he could do about his aunt's sleepiness, so he just said, "…All right. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

He was barely aware of the sound of the door to Aunt Cass's room slamming shut not long afterwards.

Thirty minutes later, Mochi jumped up on Hiro's desk and lay down on the paper he was drawing on, forcing Hiro to turn his attention to the cat.

At 8:17 PM, he got up to go to the bathroom. On his way back, he passed Mochi eating out of his bowl. Which was odd; Mochi wasn't the type to leave food uneaten, so it had to have been filled recently, and there was no way Hiro or Aunt Cass could've filled it. Plus, it wasn't near Mochi's feeding time.

Unfortunately, Mochi had pretty much finished eating by then, so he couldn't exactly just take the bowl away. Still, more alarm bells went off in his head.

When Hiro got back to his room, he noticed something else out-of-place; Honey Lemon's cell phone on his nightstand.

His friends had stopped by that afternoon and they had hung out together. He was surprised that neither he nor Honey had noticed earlier that she had forgotten her phone, especially given how much the girl used it. Oh well. She would probably come by when she realized it, and even if she didn't, he could always give it to her in the morning… (Though given the way things were currently going, he wouldn't mind having some company…)

He glanced over at the empty charging station against the wall. He had put Baymax in the garage to work on a few things the next morning, and he was now beginning to regret that decision.

He thought about going out to the garage to get him, but something told him that leaving the house was a bad idea.

So instead he sat back down at his desk and resumed drawing the giant fox and troll. When he was done with that, he took out another piece of paper and began drawing out some designs that he had thought of.

At 11:13 PM, he was still doing that. Among those were designs for robotic toy-sized versions of the fox and troll. The 15-year-old was on another one of his design-making sprees, and he wasn't going to stop for any reason until he was done, not even to change into pajamas.

Until…

_CRASH!_

Hiro froze and his gaze darted to the stairs. It had come from the kitchen.

He figured that it was probably just that Mochi had knocked something over, but still adrenaline made his heart race. He put his pencil down and slowly got out of his chair. He crossed the floor as quietly as he could, went down the stairs just as carefully, and peeked past the wall into the kitchen.

Mochi was curled up fast asleep against the wall not too far from his bowl. But Hiro didn't notice that.

What he noticed was the big, bulky person standing in the kitchen, looking at something on the floor, a ski mask covering their head, and _several large knives strapped to a belt around their waist._

Hiro immediately ran back to his room, hoping the stairs wouldn't creak and give him away. In a panic, he shut off the lamp on his desk, went over to Tadashi's side of the room, closed the partition separating their halves, and hid behind Tadashi's bed. Tadashi's desk was probably a better hiding place, but Hiro knew that he would have no way of escaping if that person decided to go after him.

Sure enough, not long after, he heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. Hiro peeked past the side of the bed, watching the partition.

The floor creaked slightly as the person slowly walked through the room.

"I know you're in here~," said the person in a distinctly masculine, singsong voice.

Hiro's blood went cold. The man sounded _exactly_ like the troll from his dream.

The partition then began to crack open and Hiro ducked back behind the bed, hopefully obscured by it but ready to run at any moment.

The heavy footsteps slowly came closer and closer until they suddenly stopped. Hiro looked up. _Right there, standing right in front of him was the man, holding large knives in both his hands and with an incredibly creepy smile on his face._

"Hello, Hiro."

Hiro made a sudden leap, scrambled over Tadashi's bed, and dashed for the partition. Fortunately, the man had left it wide open. Hiro didn't notice the man try to stab him and barely miss.

Hiro ran down the stairs as fast as he could and ended up tripping and falling on the last few steps, landing hard on the floor.

"Ow!" he cried.

"Are you trying to escape, Hiro?" the man called as he came down the stairs. "All the doors leading outside are locked and I have all the keys. Oh, and your aunt's room is locked too."

After scrambling to get up, Hiro did the only other thing he could think of: he dashed into the bathroom, locked the door, and hid in the bathtub.

A few long seconds later, the doorknob jiggled as the man tried to get in.

"Oh Hiro, do you really think locking the door is going to make any difference?" he said from the other side of the door.

"How do you know my name!?" Hiro implored, his voice cracking.

"I research all my victims before I go after them!" the man replied cheerfully.

Hiro's face went pale. This man had researched him. This man had been planning to kill him for who-knows-how-long.

"Why me!?" he begged.

"Why not!?" the man laughed.

He had been beaten up by botfighters. But they had almost never tried to outright kill him, and he had had Tadashi to protect him. Plenty of people had tried to kill him as a superhero. But he had had his friends and Baymax to help him. And even when they couldn't, he had still had his suit of armor.

But now, he didn't even have a cell phone; even if he could call for help, there was no way it could arrive in time. He was completely defenseless.

There was suddenly a loud crashing noise as the man began ramming the door in an attempt to break it open. The lock would've surely broken if it weren't for the fact that the door didn't open into the bathroom.

After a few attempts, the man said, "How on Earth has this door-? …Oh."

There was an unusually long pause afterwards that made Hiro briefly wonder what the man was doing.

Briefly, because only seconds later, the man suddenly burst through the door as it split apart. He brushed off some pieces of wood as Hiro finally noticed that the man had a flashlight mounted to his shoulder.

Once the man had gotten rid of enough splinters, he turned to face Hiro, shining the flashlight right in the boy's eyes. He chuckled right before grabbing Hiro by the neck, hoisting him up, and pressing him against the bathtub wall, holding him by the underside of his chin but keeping a few fingers on his throat, allowing him to breathe easily. It helped that Hiro's feet were still touching the bathtub floor.

Hiro could barely make out the demented grin on the man's face with the flashlight shining in his eyes as the man chuckled, his gloved hand holding one of his large knives against Hiro's throat.

Hiro glanced down at it and what he saw made his heart jump: it was one of his aunt's own knives.

"I must say," the man stated in a low, calm voice, "your aunt has a very nice knife set."

Hiro mouthed, "Why?"

"Why?" the man repeated. "I only kill my victims with items from their own homes."

The man chuckled again as he moved the knife down from Hiro's neck and lightly pressed it against his stomach.

"Oh, just imagine, Hiro, your aunt waking up in the morning and finding your cold, dead body mounted to the bathtub wall with her own knives!"

Hiro did imagine it. And it made him struggle to get free, but that was quickly stopped by the man sliding his hand down onto Hiro's neck and gripping hard, along with pressing the knife harder against his stomach.

He held him like that for a few seconds before loosening his grip and sliding his hand back up, leaving the boy coughing and gasping for breath.

"Do not test me, boy," the man in a stern, cold voice, his smile replaced with a hard glare.

It came back all too quickly, though. "Not that you'll ever be able to do that again, anyway."

Hiro felt tears run down his cheeks. He didn't want to die. He didn't want his aunt to lose him too. He didn't want his friends to have to go through another loss. He didn't know how Baymax would feel, but he didn't want the robot to lose him either.

"N-Nii-chan…" Hiro almost instinctively whimpered.

"Your Nii-chan's dead, boy," the man said, a dangerous glint in his eye, "but you'll be joining him soon enough."

Hiro felt the knife lift off of his stomach. The man began chuckling in anticipation. Hiro braced for the stab…

…And suddenly he heard approaching police sirens. Both he and the man looked out the bathroom window. They both saw flashing police lights reflected in the window. Instead of continuing on, however, the police lights stopped in front of the café.

"Fuck," the man said as he realized what was happening.

He took one last look at Hiro before dropping the boy and running out of the bathroom.

Hiro immediately crumpled to the bathtub floor, his heart still racing.

He panted heavily as realization slowly sunk in: he was alive. He was going to live.

Hiro curled up at one end of the bathtub, trembling in fear and relief.

Everything was a blur after that, until the light from a flashlight shone in his eyes.

He immediately shrunk back, shielding himself with his arms…until he saw that it was a police officer.

The officer also moved back slightly, saying, "Whoa there, kid. Calm down. I'm not gonna hurt you."

Hiro leaned against the wall, worn out from the adrenaline.

"He… He tried to kill me…"

"…Hey kid. Why don't you come with me?" the officer said, extending his hand.

Hiro shakily took his hand and the officer helped Hiro get out of the bathtub.

"Is there anyone else in the house?" asked the officer as he led Hiro out of the bathroom.

"Y-Yeah. My aunt. She's in her room."

The next thing he knew, he was outside the café. There were a few police cars and several police officers, along with an ambulance and a paramedic that was checking him for injuries.

He then noticed Honey Lemon talking to a few police officers not too far away. He wasn't close enough to hear what she was saying, but he _was_ close enough to tell that she was looking at him.

Just then, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was the officer from before.

"Kid, I'm taking you down to the station for questioning, okay?"

Hiro nodded.

The officer led him to a police car and put him in the front next to the driver's seat.

As they drove to the station, a sense of longing gnawed at Hiro's core. The last time he had been in a police car, Tadashi had been with him (though they had both been in handcuffs).

Hiro half-wished that this was just another one of those times; that he was going to the station because he had been caught at a botfight and his brother or his aunt would eventually come to pick him up. Not going in for questioning after a man broke into his house and tried to kill him.

But more than that, he just wanted Tadashi.

Tadashi, who would do almost anything to keep Hiro safe, who helped take care of Hiro when he was sick, who comforted Hiro when he had nightmares (and, rarely, vice versa).

Because right now, he needed his brother more than anything else.

Unable to stop himself, Hiro started sobbing.

"You okay?" the officer, who was driving, asked.

Hiro didn't answer, and just continued crying as they drove on.

**Author's note: I have no idea how police investigations work, so please let me know if I make a mistake.**

**My current plan for this story has supernatural elements towards the ending. I hope you guys don't mind.**

**I would've put this up a little earlier, but my beta wasn't able to read my draft until about 8:00 PM and I didn't get her suggestions until about an hour later.**


	6. Aftermath

**Sorry for the delay. My grandma's death turning a three-day trip into a nearly week-long one, combined with working on my other story, delayed my progress on this one.**

**For some reason, I keep imagining Kitsune's outfit as lavender instead of black.**

When they got to the station, it took almost half an hour for Hiro to calm enough to be able to speak clearly. When they were finally able to get started, Hiro told them everything he could remember, down to what the man had told Hiro he was going to do with him (the officer's face had turned very pale at that point). They kept him for questioning until the following morning. He could've sworn that he was shaking the entire time. He certainly didn't feel tired.

When they finally let him go, Hiro opted to sit on the steps leading up to the police station, trying to think of what to do now. The café had probably been turned into a crime-scene investigation by then; there was no way he'd be able to go back there any time soon. And he still didn't have his cell phone.

"Hiro?" said a voice behind him.

He could recognize that voice anywhere; he turned around and sure enough, it was Honey Lemon.

"Hey," he said as she sat down next to him. He didn't look at her, opting to stare at the steps.

Several moments of silence passed as she waited for him to say something.

Eventually, she broke the silence. "What happened?"

"Some guy tried to kill me," he said more unemotionally than he thought he would.

"The assassin?"

"No," Hiro immediately replied, "definitely not him."

"Then…who?"

"I don't know." Right after he said that, though, he thought of the robber who said his boss's name was Brutus. Could that man have been him?

Regardless, he didn't say anything, partially because of what he noticed when he looked up.

"Honey…"

"What?"

"On top of that building."

"Wha-? Oh."

It was hard to tell at that distance, but there was no mistaking it; it was the assassin, watching them from the roof of a nearby building.

"…Think we should get out of here?" they whispered almost simultaneously.

They glanced at each other for a few seconds and when they looked back, the assassin had disappeared.

0~*~0

They ended up taking a cab to Fred's house.

Honey rang the doorbell and, to their minor surprise, Fred was the one who answered.

"Hey guys! What's going…?" He stopped short when he saw the expressions on their faces. "Is something wrong?"

"…Can we come in?" Honey sheepishly asked.

"Y-Yeah, of course," he replied, moving out of their way.

Hiro glanced back as they went in.

He couldn't see if the assassin was there, but he had a feeling he was.

0~*~0

As they walked down the hall, Fred asked, with noticeable concern, "So what happened?"

Honey looked back at Hiro as he said, "A guy broke into my house last night and tried to kill me."

Fred's eyes widened slightly. "Oh. You okay, little man?"

Hiro looked down at the floor, his hands in his hoodie pockets. "Yeah."

He then started explaining what had happened, though he didn't go into as much detail as he had with the police. Though, to say that he hadn't expected to start tearing up towards the end of his story would be a bit of an understatement.

After that, Fred contacted Go Go and Wasabi, who both came over as quickly as they could.

Hiro ended up spending the rest of the day at Fred's house, though most of it was spent in a shock-induced daze, so he had a hard time remembering most of it.

Around dinnertime, he and Honey Lemon decided to go check on the café.

The police had apparently finished their investigation, because there weren't any officers there.

The next thing he knew, he was wrapped in familiar arms.

"Aunt Cass?" he pleaded, his voice squeaking.

"Oh honey…" she said almost mournfully.

Hiro didn't reply, he just returned the hug and reveled in the comfort of physical contact.

After a few seconds, he felt another, much larger pair of arms wrap around both of them. He didn't need to look to know who it was.

"Hey Baymax," he murmured.

"You will be all right," the robot assured. "There, there."

The next thing Hiro knew, he was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He glanced over at the clock. It was 9:38 PM. How long had he been lying there?

Before he could start to think about that, his phone started going off.

He took his phone out of his hoodie pocket and saw that it was a call from Go Go.

He accepted the call, held the phone up to his ear, and said, "Hello?"

"Hey Hiro," Go Go replied in a surprisingly solemn tone. "How are you?"

"Doing pretty well… I keep spacing out, though."

"Hmm. Uh, well, anyway, I, uh, just wanted to check on you… Gotta go."

Before Hiro could say a word, she hung up.

Hiro rolled his eyes, turned off his phone, and put it back in his pocket. He glanced to the side and noticed Baymax standing on his recharging station.

"Hey buddy," he said.

Baymax tiled his head to the side. "So what happened last night?" the robot inquired.

Hiro breathed a small sigh. He had a feeling Baymax would ask that sooner or later.

"You do not have to answer if you do not-"

"No no, it's fine."

Hiro then recounted the entire story of the masked man who broke into the house and tried to kill him. Hiro was sure to emphasize to Baymax that he (Hiro) wasn't physically harmed.

Once he was done, the robot stayed oddly silent.

"I'm done now."

Baymax still didn't react.

After several moments of silence, Hiro, for reasons even he didn't know, said, "You wanna go on patrol?"

Ten minutes later, they were suited up and flying through the sky, leaving Hiro to wonder what exactly had happened during the interim.

Nothing remarkable happened for quite a while, at least that Hiro was aware of.

That is, until Baymax said, "My scanner is detecting the assassin."

"Where?"

Baymax maneuvered a bit lower to the ground (though definitely not within jumping distance). It took Hiro a few seconds to see it: the assassin running and jumping from roof to roof, traveling at an almost inhuman speed. He was running away from them, and thus didn't appear to have noticed them.

Hiro knew it might be a bad idea, but he still said, "Baymax, follow him."

Baymax wordlessly obeyed, making sure to stay a considerable distance away from the assassin.

They followed him for several minutes, during which he never stopped or even slowed down.

"How is this guy able to run for so long?" Hiro wondered aloud.

"He is in excellent physical condition," Baymax answered, "and his right leg appears to be a sophisticated prosthetic."

Hiro didn't point out that his question was rhetorical. "H-How could you tell that last one?"

"My scanner indicates that he does not have a right leg, yet he visibly has one and does not appear to have any difficulty moving."

That…was definitely logical. But was Baymax supposed to be able to use logic like that?

Whatever. It wasn't important right now.

After a while, Hiro began to notice something odd: the assassin kept taking routes that, while harder for him to get through, made it easy for Hiro and Baymax to see him.

"Is he…leading us somewhere?"

As Hiro pondered that question, the assassin suddenly disappeared.

"What the-? Where'd he-?"

Hiro's attention was soon diverted to something else; far down below, a fight was taking place in the ruins of a partially demolished building. It didn't take long for Hiro to identify some of the participants: it was Honey Lemon, Go Go, Wasabi, and Fred in their superhero outfits all fighting against people wearing identical yellow armor that covered their entire bodies.

Hiro couldn't tell exactly how many people they were fighting, but he could tell that the team was seriously outnumbered.

"Hiro," Go Go voice suddenly boomed over the com link, "what are you doing here!?"

Hiro nearly yelped and meekly replied, "I-I was just…following the assassin…"

"…Well, whatever. We need some help down here anyway."

Hiro smirked and said to Baymax, "All right, buddy. Let's move in."

Baymax wordlessly obeyed, swooping down and landing in the battlefield, striking a dramatic pose as he did so.

0~*~0

Everything was going perfectly. Hopefully, now that all of Big Hero 6 was there, they'd be able to put a dent in his numbers. Already, some of them were clearly intimidated, backing away from the robot. A few had even fallen over. And now…

He was there. He was at the very back, but he was there. All he had to do was wait for an opening…

0~*~0

"Hey guys! I think that guy at the back is the leader!" Fred suddenly piped up.

"What guy?" said Go Go, before noticing a guy in the very back of the crowd who was larger than anybody else and had fancier armor. "Oh. That guy."

Fred immediately tried to superjump his way over to the apparent leader…but he wasn't close enough.

0~*~0

He cringed as they dogpiled on top of the one in the kaiju suit, mentally reminding himself not to come out just yet.

0~*~0

Baymax shot toward Fred, knocking over anyone that didn't get out of the way in time. Hiro, whom had dismounted Baymax near the start, hung slightly behind the fighting, looking for a chance to join in.

The terrain was far too rocky for Go Go to skate with her disks, but that certainly didn't stop her from throwing them.

Wasabi, meanwhile, realized that the yellow-armored baddies were avoiding him.

Honey tried to throw her chemical balls to ensnare them but they either dodged or were outside of her throwing range.

0~*~0

It was taking too long. If they didn't hurry up, he'd get away.

Maybe he just had to get a little closer…

0~*~0

It wasn't long before Hiro began to notice something unsettling: the people in armor seemed to be moving the rest of the team off to the side, leaving a clear path to the leader, who almost seemed to be getting closer…until one of Go Go's disks hit the guy in the head hard enough to knock him off balance. The way he toppled over was almost comical.

The man lay on the ground for a few moments before sitting up. His helmet had been knocked off. He had a long piece of gauze on the right side of his face, held there with medical tape.

The man sat there for a few more moments, looking bummed out, before turning his attention to Hiro. He slowly stood up, his gaze never wavering from the teenage boy, and then he gave a very wide and very creepy smile, his hands reaching for something behind him.

Hiro glanced around and saw that his friends were all occupied with fighting the people in armor. Baymax was getting dogpiled by them.

He glanced back at the man, who was now holding a large knife in each hand and had a very disturbing smile on his face…

"Hello, Hiro!" he bellowed before charging at him at a frightening speed.

That voice… Hiro recognized that voice… It was the voice of the man who had broken into his house and tried to kill him.

Hiro was frozen from fear.

But just as the man reached Hiro, his expression suddenly changed and he not only stopped, but he went backwards slightly. Almost as if he was afraid of something…

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around Hiro's shoulders and pulled him close, pressing the visor of his helmet against someone's chest. Seconds later, he heard a scream. Through the corner of his eye, Hiro saw his attempted murderer clutching his neck, blood flowing between his fingers. A second later, another arm wrapped around his helmet, partially obscuring his view of the man. A white arm…covered in bandages… And they had a black torso…

It was the assassin.

"Y-You…" Hiro squeaked, unable to think of how to respond.

The assassin took a few steps away from the man, forcing Hiro to do the same.

"G-Get him! Kill him!" the man rasped as he began to run away.

All of the armored people, who had previously been staring, suddenly charged towards them.

The assassin let go of Hiro and charged into the crowd, brandishing his katana in one hand and grabbing the sword handle on his belt with the other.

All Hiro could do was just stand there, stunned.

0~*~0

The first one to reach Hiro's side was Go Go.

"Hiro! Are you okay!?" she yelled.

"Uh…" was the only response Hiro gave. He couldn't give a proper answer He was far too focused on the assassin's battle.

Or at least, what he could see of it; most of it was obscured by the huge crowd. Although…

There was one person hanging back, watching from a distance…and with their hands on their hips.

"Who was that guy?" asked Wasabi.

"The assassin or the leader?" asked Fred.

"The…leader, I guess."

Hiro missed the rest of what they were saying as he strained to watch the battle. Then suddenly…

_*BANG*_

Hiro jumped, startled by the sudden sound.

The person who had been hanging back was now holding a gun.

Hiro looked in the direction the gun was pointing and saw that the crowd had now moved to what was left of the building. The assassin was standing atop a large pile of rocks against a wall, exposed to the heroes. He was staggering and slightly doubled over. Hiro could just barely see blood splatter on the wall.

Without warning, Baymax launched a rocket fist at the ground near the shooter. The shooter yelped in surprise and jumped back, dropping the gun.

The rest of the team just stared in surprise. Whenever Baymax fired a rocket fist near someone, it was always as a distraction (a very effective one at that). But he would almost never use it unless someone was threatening Hiro…

Before they could dwell any further on the implications of it, there was an inhuman screech.

They looked just in time to see the assassin jump down and charge through the crowd towards them…and then stagger and collapse halfway there, clutching his side.

Baymax was the first to move, speeding over to the assassin using his thrusters and carefully picked him up.

"Wait…" Fred said. "Is he…?"

Sure enough, Baymax sped back over to them just as the crowd began charging at him.

He stopped in front of the team and said, "We should leave now."

Hiro wanted to argue, but with a large crowd of hostiles heading right for them, he didn't really have the time to do so.

So he just got on the robot's back as he took off, still carrying the assassin in his arms. Fred jumped away while Honey and Wasabi left on the latter's bike, Go Go following not far behind, leaving the crowd of armored people to just stand there and wonder what to do next.

**Author's note: …I made the events of the ending of this chapter go by a little quicker than I intended them to.**

**It's a bit weird writing stuff for both this movie and Danganronpa (a character there is nicknamed Hiro, and he's very different from BH6!Hiro).**

**Maybe I should take a short break from this story… I probably won't, though…**


	7. Conversing

**I am SO sorry for the lateness. College drains your time and energy.**

**Oh, and I made a poll on chapter length. Go check it out.**

Hiro and the others stood outside the room where Baymax was tending to the assassin's gunshot wound. The robot had insisted on treating him. The team had tried to protest, even though they knew that once Baymax had decided to treat someone's injuries, trying to stop him was almost like trying to stop the tides. So they had reluctantly brought the materials Baymax requested to Fred's mansion, also at Baymax's request. Go Go had complained about taking the assassin there, until Hiro told her that the assassin already knew where Fred's mansion was.

They had all been waiting out in the hallway for dome time when Wasabi said, "Uh… Shouldn't we turn this guy in?"

Before anybody could properly answer, Baymax suddenly said, "I would suggest that you do not do that."

Everyone jumped, surprised at the robot's sudden appearance.

"You're done already?" Fred asked.

Baymax ignored Fred and said to Hiro, "I suggest that you go see him."

"Me!?" The robot nodded. "Why!?"

0~*~0

To say that the robot's insistence on treating his wounds was surprising would be an understatement. Still, to refuse its help would've been foolish, especially since the pain alone would've kept Kitsune from getting away.

The robot had used some sort of local painkiller to numb the area. Not that that would've been much of a problem. Part of his training had involved building up a resistance to pain. So any pain that would have resulted from the robot working on his wounds wouldn't have bothered him too much. Once the robot had finished, it had wrapped his wounds in bandages and stepped out into the hall, leaving Kitsune to lie on the sofa bed.

Now he was free to think about how and when to escape. He obviously couldn't stay too long; they'd almost certainly turn him in to the police, and it was unlikely that anything he could say would change their minds on that. It might garner some sympathy from them, but-

His thoughts were interrupted by the door suddenly opening. Instead of the robot, however, the hero in the purple suit came in, with the robot following. He still had his helmet on, but Kitsune could easily see through the visor. There was a look of contempt on his face, along with…something else? Or was it just his imagination?

The hero sat down on a chair, his stare never leaving the assassin.

After several seconds of silence, the robot said, "He is conscious."

The hero remained silent.

After several more seconds, Kitsune decided to be the one to speak. "I'm sorry."

The hero's contempt changed into confusion. "For what?"

"For leading you into that." To be honest, he wasn't sure if he needed to be sorry for it, but he felt compelled to apologize nonetheless. "I didn't expect him to do something like that."

"…Who is he?"

"He calls himself Brutus. He is a notorious serial killer who arrived in the city a month or so ago. He kills his victims by stabbing and mounting them to the wall using whatever he can find in their homes. He hired me not too long ago, but when I found out about his past, I refused to work with him. He didn't like that and, well, you've seen the results."

The hero was at a complete loss for words.

"Um…"

"What's wrong? Don't believe me?"

"N-No, it's just…"

"Didn't expect me to be so talkative?"

"…I…guess so…"

"Well, I've got no reason to hide that from you…though I can't say whether you'll believe me."

"…Why did you save me? Back at the bank."

He hesitated. "To be honest, I wondered the exact same thing myself. Well, my exact thoughts were, 'Why the hell did I just do that?'"

"So you don't know…" the hero mumbled.

"So your name's Hiro, eh?"

"Huh…!?"

"Brutus said so. And I've been following you since he attacked you." In actuality, he was mostly just guessing. But the hero's expression told him he was right.

"Why?" Hiro asked.

"I figured that sooner or later, he'd try to attack you again."

At that point, Hiro was clearly at a loss for words.

After a full minute of silence passed, Kitsune said, "You, know, it's kinda weird."

"What is?"

"That you chose a visor that left your face visible."

"…Our visors are coated with a material that can only be seen through when viewed through a similar lens."

"Oh… Then I guess my mask's eyes have that material."

0~*~0

There was a long silence afterward, as neither of them knew how to continue. Hiro couldn't believe that he was even having a conversation with the assassin, but there was something about him that caught the teen's interest.

"Since I can see through your visor, would you take your helmet off?" the assassin suddenly asked.

"You take yours off first," Hiro replied.

"…Touché," the assassin conceded, leaning back.

There was yet another awkward pause.

"We just can't keep a conversation going, can we?" the assassin chuckled. "But I guess that's not surprising. After all, I'm a hitman, and you're a superhero."

"Why'd you become a hitman?" Hiro inquired. He wasn't sure why, but he felt a need to know.

The assassin didn't react. Hiro was just about to repeat the question when Baymax, looking at the assassin, said, "Your heart rate has significantly increased."

"Because _she_ insisted on it," the assassin uttered tersely, his voice quavering.

Hiro felt like he shouldn't continue with the topic, so instead he said, "What's with the voice scrambler?"

The assassin hesitated before answering, "It's technically part of my mask. I can't get it off without taking off the mask first."

"Why was it designed like that?"

"How should I know? I didn't design it. If I had, I would've made it easier to get off."

Even with the scrambler, Hiro could detect a hint of frustration in the assassin's voice.

"Who designed it?"

"I don't know. It was already on when I woke up." He flinched. "Er-."

"When you woke up?"

"I…didn't mean to say that."

"What did you mean to say?"

"…I didn't mean to say that at all."

There was yet another pause, but the assassin interrupted it before it got awkward. "Why are you here talking to me?"

"He," Hiro motioned to Baymax with his head, "insisted that I talk to you."

The assassin turned to face the robot. "Why?"

"Is there something you would like to tell Hiro about yourself?" the robot inquired.

Hiro was confused. The assassin acted indignant. "Wh-!? Really!? What the hell made you think I have something to say about myself!?"

"…So you do not?"

"No!"

There was yet another pause. "I see. Then Hiro, you may leave."

"Yes," the assassin concurred, "please go."

Hiro, still confused, glanced between the both of them before getting up and leaving.

Once outside the room, Honey Lemon asked, "So how'd it go?"

"It was…weird," Hiro replied. He went on to detail the exchange that had taken place between him and the assassin.

"That…does seem pretty weird," Go Go concurred.

"So…" asked Wasabi, "what are we gonna do with him?"

"It's late," Go Go sighed. "We can decide in the morning."

Fred said, "Heathcliff and I can watch him."

With that, the rest of the heroes went home, Hiro taking Baymax with him.

After they left, Fred stood in the doorway of the room, staring at the assassin resting on the couch.

"What?" the assassin asked after a while. "Do you want something?"

Fred closed the door without a word.

**Author's note: I'm sorry this is shorter than my normal updates, but I didn't want you guys to wait a full two months between my chapters. Besides, this seemed like a good place to end.**

**...At least that was the plan, but then my beta got sick and her critique was significantly delayed. (I feel kinda guilty for making her read this stuff…)**

**And now I'm at my deadline for my Danganronpa story… Although, as I already said, college drains your time and energy.**


	8. Agreement

When Fred woke up the next morning, he went straight to the assassin's room without even stopping to change out of his pajamas. He opened the door and looked at the couch. It was empty. His gaze quickly flitted around the room, settling on the broken window. There was no glass on the floor. He quickly walked over and poked his head through the window, staring at the ground. The room was on the second floor, and a fall from that height was guaranteed to break one's legs (and he of all people should know). Regardless, there was no sign of the assassin.

Of course.

0~*~0

"He jumped out the window!?" Go Go yelled in disbelief over the cell phone.

Fred cringed a bit at her volume before explaining, "Well, it was broken. And there were stab marks in the wall under the window."

"Stab marks," Go Go repeated.

"I checked outside and I saw stab marks leading down the wall."

Silence.

"He had been shot! I didn't think he'd be able to escape!"

"He does have a point," Honey Lemon said meekly, also over the phone.

There was more silence.

Hiro, also part of the conversation, just facepalmed in response to the whole thing, though only Baymax saw him.

0~*~0

They didn't see the assassin again for five days. For three of those days, the killings had slowed to one per day. The whole thing weighed heavily on Hiro's mind. During those days, he had felt a strong temptation to Google "Brutus the serial killer", but given his experience he ultimately decided against it; he didn't want to learn something that would make it even harder for him to sleep.

He was still paranoid around food; he didn't need the police to figure out that the serial killer had drugged Aunt Cass's and Mochi's food. And likely Hiro's too.

Hiro didn't see the serial killer again, either. And he was more than okay with that.

And then, as he sat at his desk as the sun set, it occurred to him: why would a serial killer hire an assassin?

It felt odd that he hadn't thought about it earlier, but given how stressful the whole situation was, perhaps it wasn't so odd.

He slumped so that his head was resting on the desk. The whole thing had him worn out, and he wanted it to end. Maybe…the assassin…

Tinkering. Maybe tinkering with something would help him.

He got up from his desk and started to head downstairs.

_CRASH!_

Hiro froze.

"You okay, sweetie?" Aunt Cass called from downstairs.

"That wasn't me…" replied Hiro, just loud enough for her to hear.

There was a long pause.

"Where's Baymax?" asked Aunt Cass.

"In the garage," Hiro responded.

"Want me to check?"

"It's probably just Baymax…"

Still, Hiro picked up a broom and cautiously crept downstairs and outside to the garage, which had become far more cluttered over the past year.

The first thing he noticed was that the garage door was open. A toolbox lay on its side on the ground, and it looked like a few things had fallen over.

He barely had time to think about it when he heard something else, like a low droning sound. It also happened to be coming from the floor.

He briefly looked around. There was a pile of black and white on the floor. He did a double-take.

The assassin was lying on his garage floor.

Hiro jumped back… "GYAHHH!"

…And tripped over the toolbox, letting go of the broom and hitting his elbow on the edge of a table as he fell. "OOWWW!"

Hiro then heard the sound of something inflating, followed by squeaking.

"Hello, I am Baymax, your per-"

Hiro bolted upright, pointing at the assassin. "Th-The-The-The-!"

"What seems to be the trouble?"

"Th-The guy-! He's-!"

Baymax finally looked in the direction Hiro was pointing. He tilted his head at the sight of the assassin and scanned him.

"I am detecting low levels of an unknown substance within his bloodstream. It may be a type of poison."

"Poison?" Hiro repeated, looking back at the assassin who, he now noticed, was trembling slightly.

"He is also conscious."

The low droning came again from the assassin as he curled in on himself.

Against his better judgment, Hiro slowly approached the assassin. He stopped just out of arm's reach for the man.

The assassin turned his head so that he was looking at Hiro. "Don't… Don't call an ambulance… They wouldn't be able to help…"

"Why not?"

"It's one Brutus developed himself… Almost no one even knows…it exists. But that doesn't matter… It's been over 20 minutes…and my stomach isn't hurting…"

"Huh?"

"It means…I'm not gonna die. Not gonna be very pleasant, though…"

Hiro almost asked him how he got into his garage, but decided that the man wasn't exactly in a state to answer properly. "How am I going to explain this to Aunt Cass…?"

"You could tell her the truth," Baymax answered.

Hiro didn't point out that the question had been rhetorical.

0~*~0

"Um… Aunt Cass?"

Hiro didn't miss the brief look of relief on her face. "Is everything okay?"

He looked around, still indecisive about telling her. "Well… You remember that assassin guy I mentioned?"

She immediately looked concerned. "Yes…"

"He's in our garage and he was poisoned, but he's apparently going to live. And he doesn't want us to call an ambulance because they won't be able to help."

She was silent. Then, "What?"

Hiro gave a nervous smile. "Baymax wants to keep an eye on him overnight, so… Is it okay if we have him sleep on the couch?"

She was speechless.

Baymax came up the stairs, carrying the assassin in his arms.

"Is that him?" Cass asked.

"Yeah."

"Who's this?" the assassin grunted.

"My Aunt Cass," Hiro replied.

The assassin gave no response.

Without waiting, Baymax waddled over and set the assassin down on the couch.

0~*~0

Hiro lay awake for what felt like half the night but was really only an hour. He was thinking too much about the assassin, and his mild hunger didn't help.

Baymax was staying downstairs with the assassin, so Hiro had moved his charger down there.

It felt strange for the robot to not be with Hiro. He had gotten used to the robot's usual presence at night.

An odd sound came from downstairs, undoubtedly from the assassin. Hiro continued to lie there until he finally decided to get up and go downstairs.

As he got to the kitchen, his gaze automatically went to the assassin lying on the couch. A lamp nearby was lit.

Baymax looked up at Hiro. "His condition is stable."

Hiro nodded once and went over to the cupboards, getting out a small glass. After getting a drink of water, he set the glass on the counter and looked at the assassin yet again.

He hadn't moved. Under the light of the lamp, Hiro could see a white spot on the man's chest he hadn't noticed before. He quietly walked up and bent down slightly. It was a small nametag. "C-14?"

"Hey…"

Hiro nearly yelped when the assassin spoke.

"I know you… You were that kid…passed out on that gravestone a while back… 'Tadashi Hamada,' I think it said…"

It took Hiro a few seconds to realize what that meant. "Wait… You were the one who moved me?"

"And gave you the cloth for a blanket."

"Why?"

"It was going to rain, and you were alone… I couldn't just leave you there…"

Hiro would never say it, but he was glad that the assassin had done that. To go out of his way to help a random kid… Maybe he wasn't just a remorseless assassin. He had encountered a few people like that; Bad Guys that weren't _bad_ guys.

Hiro gave a small smile without meaning to and started to leave. The assassin suddenly grabbed his wrist, making the teen nearly yelp again.

The assassin loosened his grip slightly. "Ah, I…know this is selfish of me, but…could you stay? For a bit longer? I…feel better when you're here."

Hiro looked at him incredulously. "My room's right upstairs. And I can't stay down here all night."

"Oh." He let his hand drop down and shifted on the couch, wincing as he did so. "I'm not used to sleeping…without another human nearby…"

Hiro's eyebrow went up. So the assassin wasn't alone? He didn't want the assassin to realize his slip, so Hiro didn't mention it.

Neither of them said anything after that. Hiro decided to stay for a few minutes, sitting at the kitchen table. After that, he went back up to his room. The assassin didn't react.

0~*~0

When morning finally came, Hiro went downstairs as usual to get some breakfast. He was briefly startled to see the assassin, now sitting completely upright on the couch.

The man casually said, "Good morning."

"G-Good…morning…" Hiro replied.

"He appears to have recovered," Baymax told him.

"You're wondering just what kind of poison it was, aren't you, Hiro?" the assassin asked.

Hiro slowly nodded.

"It's a special poison that Brutus developed prior to hiring me. I don't know how it works or how he made it, but I do know this: if, after ingesting the poison, your stomach starts hurting within 5 minutes, that means you're guaranteed to throw up and afterwards guaranteed to live. If it starts hurting between 5 and 10 minutes, you have about a 50% chance of throwing up, and if you do, you have about a 50% chance of living. If it starts hurting between 10 and 20 minutes, you're going to die. If it's been over 20 minutes and your stomach still isn't hurting, that means you haven't ingested enough for it to be fatal. It's not going to be pleasant, but it's a lot better than dying."

Despite the voice scrambler, Hiro could still pick up on some of the man's vocal inflections. "Uh…"

"The worst part is that it takes 50 to 60 minutes to die after ingestion."

The mental image of that horrified Hiro. "Ahh… Wait, how did he-?"

"You're referring to the mask, aren't you?" The assassin nodded slowly. "I'm not entirely sure myself. I was fighting with Brutus and he was grappling with my mask and I suddenly had a foul taste in my mouth. I was basically forced to swallow. Fortunately, I was able to get a fair distance away before the poison started to affect me."

"That doesn't really answer my question."

The assassin tapped his mask's snout. "The mouth opens up. I can show you next time I eat."

Aunt Cass then came downstairs, saying nothing to either of them.

"Oh. How'd you end up in my garage?" Hiro asked.

"I, uh…" The assassin looked around. "I don't know. I was mostly just wandering around without really thinking. I think I was in front of a library when it started to affect me, if that makes any difference."

Aunt Cass looked up at the man, but she didn't say anything. He didn't notice.

There was a pause.

Before it got awkward, the assassin said, "You know, we've been running into each other rather often, haven't we?"

Hiro didn't entirely agree with that statement but said, "I…guess so…"

"Perhaps it's a sign… A sign that…we should work together."

Hiro was both surprised and unsurprised. "…What."

Baymax stated, "I also think you should work with the man in the fox mask."

"It's a Kitsune mask…" the man corrected testily.

Hiro looked at the robot with wide eyes. "Why? And what do you mean 'work together'?"

The man answered, "I lead you to Brutus's followers and let you deal with them. I'll also tell you more about them and help out when the need arises."

"Haven't you been…?"

"I just want Brutus. I don't care what happens to his followers, but I need them out of the way. You saw why last week."

Hiro certainly wasn't going to forget soon. He narrowed his eyes and inquired, "And what are you going to do after you're done with Brutus?"

"What I'll be _able_ to do will depend on the circumstances, but I know what I _want_ to do. I can't discuss it right now, though."

Hiro was surprised. He was sure the man wouldn't have an answer, even an uninformative one. "Why not?"

"Regarding working together," the masked man continued, ignoring the question, "I'm asking you because at this point, it is clear to me that if I continue to work alone, I'm going to get killed. I need help, Hiro, from you and the others." He put his hands together and gave a slight bow.

Hiro blinked. The man was a Bad Guy, but maybe…

Hiro looked at Aunt Cass, silently asking her opinion. Her gaze flitted between the two until she finally said, "Are you KIDDING!? That guy is DANGEROUS! He's a KILLER! He MURDERS PEOPLE for a LIVING! NO, I don't think you should work with him! He should be in JAIL!"

The masked man immediately stood up and stared at Aunt Cass. "Cass, you know those people that have been going around and killing other people in their homes? They're doing that to draw _me_ out, and they aren't going to stop until they kill me or run out of people to kill. Even if the police and Big Hero 6 can stop them on their own, I don't want to know how many people will die before then. Besides, it was my breaking my contract with them that caused them to start killing. I tried to get out of it once, but I'm not going to do that again. I want to take responsibility and put an end to this as quickly as possible."

"You're 'taking responsibility' by killing them," she pointed out.

"I only kill the ones that escape from police custody. And I just want them out of the way. I don't care how. Killing just…happens to be what I'm used to at this point." He trailed off, aware of how weak his reasoning was. "They're followers of a serial killer; most of them are beyond reason. And the ones that aren't either don't escape or they turn themselves in."

"You want them 'out of the way'?"

"I'm after their leader Brutus. I need them out of the way because… Well, Hiro could explain that to you."

Aunt Cass glanced at Hiro. Her expression made it clear she hadn't changed her mind.

"Look," the masked man continued, "I won't deny that I can be dangerous, but Brutus is far more dangerous than I am. I go out of my way to avoid hurting innocents and children. Brutus-"

"I can ensure that Hiro is not alone with the man in the Kitsune mask, if that would help convince you," Baymax interrupted.

Aunt Cass pursed her lips. She didn't feel at all comfortable with letting Hiro spend time with that man, but she knew she could trust Baymax to protect Hiro. "Why do you want him to stay?" she finally asked.

"I believe it would be beneficial for both Hiro and the man in the mask."

Hiro and the man looked at Baymax and simultaneously asked, "How?"

Baymax didn't answer.

Aunt Cass, realizing she wasn't going to win, sighed, "Fine. I keep making too much food anyway…"

Hiro looked back at the masked man and said, "I guess we can try it, at least for a while."

The man gave a deeper bow. "Thank you. Is it all right if I sleep in the garage?"

"I…guess so. Uh…"

"You may call me C-14."

"C-14?"

"Yes. It's the number I was given. You saw the nametag, didn't you?"

"Number?" Aunt Cass repeated.

"Everyone was given a number," C-14 explained.

Hiro and Aunt Cass looked at him in concern.

"If you want to know more, I can tell you later. But first, I have a request."

"What is it?"

He wrung his hands, looked up at Aunt Cass, and begged, "Do you think you could take in two more people?"


End file.
